


Shadows in the Dark

by daybreakanddusk



Category: Naruto
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-05 18:28:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11583681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daybreakanddusk/pseuds/daybreakanddusk
Summary: According to Konohagakure officials, it was a mistake to allow a cursed foreigner into their ranks, let alone grant her a genin team. According to Hatake Kakashi, she wouldn't have thrown away the Godaime title without due cause - and that it was only a matter of time before Uchiha Itachi followed her example.





	Shadows in the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> [Insert Disclaimer Here]

It was easy to lead him to the Cove. Even if it hadn't been, Inuzuka Cana would have had little difficulty in exploiting his heroic side. He would forgive her chosen tactics, she knew, once he realized her back up plan involved endangering the people of Mist. Luckily, Ludwig served as expert bait.

The trap was simple: her beastly companion would engage the target and signal her on contact. Ludwig would then initiate a game of tag; if the challenge got rejected, he was to adopt the face of a ghost and taunt the mark into the chase. A second, coded howl signified the need to bring out Plan B. The first howl had rolled through the sky roughly two hours prior, muffled by the raucous tides secluding her already distant post from the rest of the archipelago. When half an hour had passed without another call, Cana had executed her given task.

Scylla was fed, set down to nap, and an alarm was rigged throughout the bay. All that was left to do was wait. Despite the pain as she mended her bones, she couldn't help the grin that broke across her face, fierce as the craggy shore. As she took a swig from her flask, three short barks cracked against the wind. Cana bounced down her jagged peak, skipped across the waves, then threw her arms around her expected guest.

"This is it, Itachi!" she beamed, far too ecstatic for a proper hello. She wasn't bothered in the slightest when she was shoved roughly away, and simply continued. "Dawning of a new era, yada, yada - most importantly, it’s the revelation I've been dying to give you." She offered Kisame an easygoing wave, which he returned with a nervous glance at his kohai's back.

"If your shithead mutt impersonates my uncle again, I'm gutting him and making a coat with his fur." The Uchiha dropped with a severe crimson glare.

"Attitude like that," she tsked, her grin becoming mischievous as she reached for the holster at her hip. "Maybe we shouldn't give you the job?" Cana watched his eyes track the object she pulled free from the black leather.

"Don't fuck with me," he spat with enough venom in his tone to noticeably surprise his partner. His sharingan spun threateningly, and she squashed her reflex to avert her gaze. His own quickly returned to the scroll.

"Hm?" she glanced innocently at the purple and gold missive in her palm, tied with a braided red string. The coloring may have matched her waist length dreadlocks and almond eyes respectively, however, her ex-teammate knew full well that she preferred scrolls with a more subtle look. The one in her palm, well the silken parchment and gilded design of the border emitted an aura of regality at the very least. "Oh, this?" Cana met the curious charcoal sights of their quiet, cyan observer. "This one is for you and your associates."

"'This one,'" Itachi repeated. His attention hadn't budged from the innocuous item, scrutinizing it as she flipped it, caught it, flipped it again. "It looks real enough," his tone certainly didn't lack in skepticism. "If anyone could make a forgery, it would be you."

"Your assumption is both flattering and false. The only person who could ever replicate her style is you." She shrugged, tossed it casually to the swordsman. Hoshigaki Kisame snatched it from the air, eager to study the object of interest. With his comrade's suspicions in mind, he stalled opening it.

"You said this is a mission?" he verified. "Why did you have to lure us way out here to deliver it?"

"She's planning something," Itachi answered, "and I can guarantee you that whatever it is will be a bitch." The laugh that bubbled up in the caramel skinned kunoichi did nothing but confirm the young ronin's statement.

"You could walk away - " he turned his back to her. "But then you won't get the Boss's letter for you." Kisame noted the way Cana's grin widened as his partner froze in his tracks, focused now on empty space. "It's real close, finding it should be simple for you. Retrieving it… well that's where all the fun is, isn't it, Ita-chi?"

The Uchiha released a frustrated growl, the curse 'goddamnit' nearly washed beneath the waves. He extended a hand toward his colleague, palm up expectantly. The familiarity of the scroll wrenched at his heart the moment it met his fingertips, and he knew Kisame hadn't missed the minute reaction of pain that passed over his face. Chakra tingled in his grasp; Itachi turned it over with careful consideration before pinching one end of the tiny bow. _No locks, no traps, only protective arrays_. The nostalgia was overwhelming, to the point where he hardly noticed Hoshigaki's heavy intrigue at his hesitation.

He tugged it quickly, let the knot fall away to the ocean, yanked the missive open. His gaze slid across the page, unseeing until he reached the signature. Fine brush, quick, elegant strokes, left handed, circled by five distinct prints. He whirled on his childhood friend, eyes blazing.

"What the actual fuck, Cana?!" he shouted. "This is a sick joke-"

"It's not a joke!" she yelled right back, smile finally fading as if to prove her serious.

"Either it's fake or you let me believe she was dead!" Itachi rolled it back up, fast and furious, then secured it with chakra like it was second nature. "All this time…" he couldn't keep the ache in his soul from spilling into his voice, nearly as powerful as his anger.

"I couldn't risk compromising the anonymity of Tenjogakure," she countered with a sense of duty clear in her tone. "If it had been targeted in such a fragile state - Boss was determined, she would have died protecting it."

At that moment, the young man faltered, his response lost to the torrent of emotions rushing through his blood. "Does she…" he hadn't heard himself speak, and the way he trailed off made Kisame wonder if he had even meant to at all.

"All of your questions will be answered," Cana promised. "But not until after your test."

"Wha-"

The kunoichi flicked her wrist and ninja wire snapped over the frothy ocean surface. A series of scattered chimes was the only warning for a series of detonations, strategically placed around the bay. An agitated roar erupted from the Cove-

Ludwig gave two short barks and leapt onto the quaking range that encompassed the small island. One by one, seven tentacles sprang from the water, as massive as the land before them. The hound attacked with blinding speed, drilling straight through the nearest appendage with the Inuzuka clan's trademark technique.

"Guaranteed, Kisame."

The native rogue pulled Samehada from his back with dark amusement rumbling through him. "Scylla certainly is a bitch. And it's about time someone put her down, too. She's been in Mist's bingo book since I was a kid."

"Scylla has your scroll," Cana told Itachi. "I'll buy you time to find it." She flickered away to join her dog in battle.

"Warn me before you whip out a lightning technique, would ya?" With that, Kisame ran to join the fray. Itachi took no time to consider the man's enthusiasm, focusing instead on the ferocity they faced. He summoned Mehrunes, the largest of his crow contract.

"You do not have to fight," he told the avian lord as he stroked the onyx feathers high above his head. "I just need a good look and then you can go." Mehrunes cawed, then dipped forward to accept his duty as a mount. Itachi led them through a slow circuit of the Cove, his mangekyo tracking the wild chakra hidden within. He watched the cephalopod thrash against the assault, crumbling the surrounding peaks.

None of the tentacles had the scroll, not even the dead one. The mass beneath the verdant island was such a mess of chakra, he couldn't discern what was what down there. To see through to it meant looking through the layers of chakra from the thick vegetation; it was like a grainy image lain over Scylla's unstable chakra system. It hurt to focus his dojutsu so intently. There were extra limbs down there, and it was about all he could say definitively.

_Time to draw her out._ Itachi flew to the furthest tentacle from his team and dismissed Mehrunes. The puckered appendage was rushing down on him. He needed no hand signs, for the technique he chose was the first he had ever learned. Inhaling deeply, he built and released his jutsu in an instant.

Flames engulfed his vision and the heat of his great fireball singed his hair. It was, naturally, large enough to overpower the danger before him. It crashed back against the center isle, burning and writhing as Scylla screeched beneath her rock. The tentacles disappeared beneath the waves, and someone soaked the burning foliage with a basic water release.

Itachi settled on a low cliff, as close to the cavern entrance as he could be while on solid ground. He knew it was too late for any sense of diplomacy - the creature was wounded and enraged, and would not rest until they were neutralized. Still, he called to her, his voice carrying clear across the bay and into her hiding place.

Scylla answered him with a tide churning roar.

"You have something that belongs to me, hand it over and we will desist our assault." A tentacle shot from the waves and swept his perch into the sea. He followed it with eight tagged kunai. The explosions ripped apart the coast, sending stone and serpentine flesh high into the air like violent geysers.

Five tentacles rose to action. Uchiha nicked his thumb, swiped the blood across his left palm. "Summoning," he murmured. The hilt of a katana emerged from his skin; the gentle chime of the two tiny bells at the end sent chills down his spine. The last time he had heard that sound, it was as the blade they hung from slid through his chest and into the tree at his back. He channeled chakra through the sword as he drew it with an upward strike. "Windshear." A gorge tore into the seabed, from his feet to the Cove, a path of destruction that followed his swing. The tide rushed to fill the gap. Somewhere to his left, Cana laughed.

He danced away from the appendages, wondering if he should simply charge inside Scylla's den. Suddenly, she cried viciously - three humanoid hands reached out of the cavern; two grabbed hold of the entrance while the other sank beneath the waves. She crawled out and onto the island, revealing her entire upper half to be that of a woman's. In her fourth hand was a titanic trident that she dragged out behind her. Scylla wrapped herself around her island, raised her weapon.

That's when he saw it, high in her abdomen, likely in her stomach. Itachi sidestepped her thrust, hopped onto the gigantic pitchfork, and raced toward her arm. His chakra kept him glued to the surface as she swung it around. He sliced clean through the fingers that tried to capture him, crush him. The terrible scream Scylla emitted came from a mouth filled with several layers of razor sharp teeth, and he idly wondered how she hid them with such thin lips. She was outright growling and snarling at them now, most of her aggression directed toward the raven headed pest climbing her arms.

"Cough it up!" he demanded, meeting her slimy gaze. Itachi was unafraid when Scylla leaned in to roar a rancid roar. He spat fire in her face.

He used the opportunity to drop down, aiming the point of his katana straight at the scroll glowing inside her. He fed his blade the chakra to create a cyclone around him, slicing away at anything that got too close. Her flesh parted easily, and he released the jutsu when he reached the muscle just above his goal. He hacked into it, avoided the pungent acid that spewed out, and snagged the scroll with a chakra thread.

A massive palm overshadowed him - Kisame caught it with Samedaha, shredding through the flesh with her unwrapped scales.

"Clear!" Cana's voice rang through the bay, followed by a thunderous bark. Both were on opposite sides of the range, directly across from one another. Itachi spun, a tingle filling the air as the Inuzuka quickly charged their own technique. His grip locked around his colleage's bicep, and he used the Body Flicker to get them as far from Scylla as he could, avoiding the direction the bitch and her hound's call came from. Their feet hit solid ground as the kunoichi cued the release with a booming shout. "Tesla Arc!"

With the speed of light, electric bolts sparked across the space between Cana and Ludwig. Each one of godly proportion, they converged on the sea beast. She thrashed violently at the initial zap, then fell away to twitching as the powerful chakra hummed and buzzed. It was over in the length of a breath. Scylla was dead.

Uchiha Itachi gazed down at the destruction, the island scared by burns and debris. The scroll was warm in his hands. _Sensei_...


End file.
